OTTR

Otter Tail Corporation

A diversified holding company based in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, whose main business is Otter Tail Power Company, an electric utility serving hundreds of communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, alongside a manufacturing arm that makes metal parts and plastic products. Its name comes from the Otter Tail River, which is said to echo an Ojibwe place name for a sandbar shaped like an otter's tail, and the firm grew out of a dam built on that river. Founded in 1907 by Vernon Wright, it began with hydroelectric power drawn from that very river—fittingly, the tail of an otter launched an electric company.